Biography

"Irisarri creates music that can be both epic and subdued, with dreamy textures floating effortlessly and dissolving into one another...The listener can only bask in its shimmering beauty." - Angry Ape
Rafael Anton Irisarri is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist artist based in Seattle, Washington, mostly associated with the post-classical and ambient genres of electronic music .
He is also known as the main member of The Sight Below (on Ghostly International).
His placid compositions consist for the most part of repetitive motifs containing submerged melodic lines performed on the piano, glockenspiel and melodica. Reverb-drenched guitar textures, drones, field recordings, strings and minimal electronic counterpoints all contribute and converge equally in the music to create an oceanic experience that can be both epic and subdued.
His music has been described by The Wire contributing writer Jefferson Petrey as "a dual perspective close-up focus on the micro textures of rustling static-filled sonic surfaces with the wide-open distant tree lined horizons of sunset at dusk."
His debut album, Daydreaming (on Norwegian label Miasmah) was very well-received by the press and music community. He is currently finishing a full-length sophomore album to be released in the Autumn of 2010.
Irisarri has performed extensively (either solo or with The Sight Below) throughout Europe and North America, including electronic music festivals Sonar (Barcelona), MITO (Milan), MUTEK (Montreal), NODE (Modena), Unsound (Krakow) and DEMF (Detroit), and Decibel (Seattle). His concerts are mostly centered around piano, glockenspiel and electric guitar improvisation, utilizing real-time signal processing to re-create the textural density of his recorded works.
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